Cherry says he’s ‘fairly optimistic’ about Michigan’s future

Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry says he is "fairly optimistic" about the long-term future for the state of Michigan.

In an interview with the News-Review editorial board on Wednesday, Cherry said that as he travels around the state, the people he talks to are trying to make some sense of where the state is headed.

"They're asking, 'What does the future look like for us as Michiganders, and what is the state of Michigan doing to secure the future?"

In response to their concerns, Cherry said he tells them he is "fairly optimistic about our long-term future" and emphasizes the need to upgrade education attainment of the workforce.

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"We are the most concentrated state in the nation in terms of automotive jobs, so any time that sector is going through a major change, it's going to have significant repercussions for the state," he said. "But if you were to pull the automotive part out of our economy, you'll find that Michigan is a growing economy, and we've got some assets that help us take advantage of this new economy."

He said education is the key to the future, and has been a main theme of the Granholm administration.

Cherry said there are 90,000 job openings in the state, most in very technical fields and require high levels of training and education. He said studies show there is an almost direct correlation between the level of educational attainment and the level of unemployment.

"The higher the educational level, the higher the income, and the higher the level of income growth," he said, noting that business is becoming very knowledge-based.

"The industrial process is much more technological than it used to be," he said. "It has the negative effect of reducing the amount of employment, but that's how they gain their productivity."

He said those businesses require highly skilled workers.

Cherry said that when he graduated from his Flint-area high school in 1969, graduates were faced with the choice of going on to college or taking a job on the production line at General Motors.

"Quite frankly, it didn't matter which decision you made. Both were economically sound decisions. In the plant, you could get great pay, build a home, get good benefits. A high school diploma was a ticket to a middle-class life style," he said. "But that's not the case today. Not even in the automotive industry. In the new plant that Chrysler is building in Dundee, they're not even hiring anybody who doesn't have a post-secondary education."

He said Michigan lags the rest of the nation in educational achievement.

"We have a major task ahead of us to upgrade the level of our educational attainment," he said.

He said the new economy is "amazingly flexible" in terms of location.

"With the Internet, it truly is a global economy. People can participate in it from almost anywhere. So businesses are gravitating to great places to live."

And that includes Northern Michigan, he said.

"We believe that if we focus in on bringing businesses to the state that are focused on these four emerging areas - life sciences/bio-tech, advanced manufacturing, homeland security and alternative energy - that there is something in all of that for the entire state, as long as we're focused on upgrading the skill set of our adult population."

He said there are two ways to approach the challenge: through the young people and through the current displaced work force.

Cherry, a Democrat, said the Granholm administration has undertaken two programs:

- "No Worker Left Behind" which provides any Michigan worker who is unemployed or in the process of being unemployed with community college, tuition-free re-training, books and day-care, to help them re-position themselves in the work force, and

- "The Michigan Promise" which offers to re-imburse any high school graduate who completes his first two years of post-secondary experience with tuition up to $4,500.

Asked if he would consider running for governor, Cherry said it is too soon to speculate, but that he will reach a preliminary decision toward the end of the year.